Anthem to open CareMore centers in Henrico

By Elizabeth Ygartua, Special to the Citizen

08/08/12

Anthem will introduce four new healthcare centers - including two in Henrico - to the Metro Richmond market in January.

The CareMore care centers will open in the Brook Run Shopping Center in northern Henrico; near the intersection of Parham Road and Patterson Avenue; on Midlothian Turnpike near Robious Road; and on Jahnke Road near Chippenham Hospital.

CareMore innovated a successful Medicare advantage plan to provide coverage and care for about 54,000 people in California, Arizona and Nevada. In 2011, the California-based CareMore Health Group was bought by Anthem’s parent company WellPoint, Inc.

“The key to understand is although we’re a health plan, we’re really a healthcare delivery system and that’s why we’re different,” said Dr. Michael Neiderer, regional medical officer for CareMore. “We come in with an entire approach of how to take care of patients and a lot of the emphasis that it is on is health maintenance and spending on a more robust benefit to maintain health than to take care of people in the hospital.”

CareMore care centers provide coordinated care plans for patients with multiple doctors and have specialized programs to help those with chronic conditions such as diabetes or congenital heart failure, said Linda Larue, general manager of CareMore for Virginia.

“There really is the care model in the concept of the team, how the team takes care of the patient, that really is so innovative and makes it so successful,” she said. “We don’t really have anything like that in Richmond.”

She emphasized that the services provided by the centers are holistic but do not replace the primary care physician’s role. CareMore’s services also include mental health programs and more social services, such as seminars on phone usage or Nifty After Fifty, a fitness program.

“If you can imagine going to your primary care doctor, you know in the world we live in today you may get 10 or 15 minutes with your doctor and sometimes that’s just not enough for this population of patients,” she said. “Enrollees may see their primary care doctor couple times but they can come to the care clinic as often as they want.”

The CareMore centers and model will have working relationships with the five HCA hospitals in the region, building on Anthem’s previous partnerships with them, Larue said. There also will be a network of associated local physicians.

When new patients visit one of the CareMore centers, they will sit with a physician or physician’s assistance to complete CareMore’s Healthy Start medical history evaluation, Neiderer said. Staff members then will put patients with chronic or preexisting conditions into programs to help monitor their progress.

“That makes it that much easier for the primary care physician when they finally meet their new patients,” he said. “We try to have that healthy start completed and that information to the primary care physician so that when they meet the patient they have that and it can save a lot of time and help them get to the patient more quickly.”

The centers are now hiring, according to CareMore’s official website, for offices in Brooklyn and Albany, N.Y. and the Richmond-area locations.

WellPoint and Anthem run Blue Cross Blue Shield in 14 states, with one in nine Americans receiving coverage from one of its affiliated plans, according to the WellPoint website.

RAMPS (Ramp Access Made Possible by Students) recently received an $8,000 grant from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The award was one of 75 grants totaling more than $600,137 awarded by the Reeve Foundation to nonprofit organizations nationwide that provide more opportunities, access, and daily quality of life for individuals living with paralysis, their families and caregivers.

RAMPS, an organization founded by then-Henrico County high school students to build ramps for local low-income residents who need them, will use the grant to purchase modular wheelchair ramp supplies. These supplies will be used by local high school RAMPS clubs, who provide volunteers to build the ramps. > Read more.

Henrico resident Larry Loving, Jr., will compete with three other locals – Thomas Scribner (Richmond), Roscoe McGhee (Midlothian) and Larry Loving (Richmond) in the Liberty Mutual Insurance Invitational National Finals at TPC Sawgrass, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Feb. 26-Mar. 1. The foursome qualified for the national golf tournament by winning the Liberty Mutual Insurance Invitational, held at Whiskey Creek Golf Club in Ijamsville, Md. on June 11. That event supported the RiteCare Center for Childhood Language Disorders.

The Henrico Police Athletic League (PAL) held its Sixth Annual Awards Banquet Feb. 5 at The Cultural Arts Center of Glen Allen, celebrating accomplishments of 2014 and recognizing outstanding contributions to the organization. Henrico County Juvenile Domestic Court Judge Denis Soden served as master of ceremonies and former Harlem Globetrotter Melvin Adams served as keynote speaker.

Among the 2014 honorees were Richmond International Raceway (Significant Supporter), Richmond Strikers Soccer Club (Significant Supporter), Henrico County Schools-Pupil Transportation (Summer Camp Supporter), Bruce Richardson, Jr. (Youth of the Year), Sandra Williams (Volunteer of the Year), Thomas Williams (Employee of the Year), Mikki Pleasants (Board Member of the Year), and Michelle Sheehan (Police Officer of the Year). > Read more.

It was another win for Willow Lawn when Travinia Italian Kitchen and Wine Bar opened there six months ago, nestled in the heart of the re-made shopping center. The contemporary American Italian restaurant boasts 13 locations up and down the East Coast, with the Henrico location opening in August.

In the same week, I hit up Travinia twice, once for lunch and once for a late dinner. At lunchtime on a weekday, I was overwhelmed by the smell of garlic and by the number of working professionals in nice suits on their lunch breaks. When we first walked in, I was concerned our meal would be a little too pricey based on the décor – it’s a really nice place. Luckily, the menu has a variety of options for every budget. > Read more.

There’s a ton of sugar in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. Literal sugar, as SpongeBob Squarepants (Tom Kenny) and Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) inhale their own weight in cotton candy and eat ice cream, one scoop per mouthful.

At one point we burrow into the brain of our boxy yellow hero and discover the inner workings of his brain: googly-eyed cakes and candies that giggle and sing. All of which is extremely appropriate for a film like Sponge Out of Water. Because not only is the movie sweet (the “awwww” kind of sweet), but it’s the equivalent of a 30-candy bar sugar rush, zipping between ideas like a sponge on rocket skates.

The story under all this is really not that complicated. SpongeBob flips burgers at the Krusty Krab. > Read more.

With this last round of snow still fresh on the ground, the best way to start the weekend may be at Southern Season for their weekly wine-tasting program, Fridays Uncorked. Families with cabin fever will enjoy the Richmond Kids Expo, taking place tomorrow at the Richmond Raceway Complex. Some date night options include the Rock & Roll Jubilee at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, HATTheatre’s production of “The Whale” and National Theatre Live’s “Treasure Island” at the University of Richmond. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.